January 2020 Newsletter

Winning Club of the Year, strong finishes in the
leagues, and a huge range of pb’s in meets of all levels, meant there was much
to celebrate for Kinross Otters in 2019.
Sadly, there were tough times too, which has led to a strengthening of
our Otters family.

Here is a look back at 2019.

Club of The
Year

Our highlight without a doubt and a wonderful
and worthy win for the whole club. Our
swimmers, parents, coaches, poolside helpers and committee members give so much
to help Kinross Otters develop young people and this award belongs to everyone
at the club.

Summer Camp

The
first of hopefully many of these land and water based training days. Led by our
volunteer coaches and giving swimmers more insight into how they can improve
their swimming and their general fitness and wellbeing.

Leagues

A
strong finish for both squads this season and some great swims from Otters of
all ages. We’ll be competing in the
Premier and First Divisions in 2020 and the squads will be announced soon.

Team
Activities

We understand the importance of building
relationships in what can be a rather isolating sport. We had a great programme of events this year
which helped swimmers, parents and coaches get together

socially. Everything from cake nights to
paddleboarding, a great time was had by all.

We are hoping to run more social events next
year and if you have any ideas, please do share them with any committee member,
drop it into the Otters postbox at the pool or email us at secretary@kinrossotters.co.uk

Santa Sleigh

Once again our swimmers, parents and coaches
showed commitment to their club and their community by volunteering at the
Kinross Rotary Club annual Santa Sleigh!

Local clubs can raise funds for good causes
and their own clubs by volunteering to help Santa tour the streets of
Kinross-Shire in his sleigh. We had lots of willing helpers in what you could
call “challenging conditions”. Thank you
to all of them!

Broke not
Broken

Broke not Broken are our local foodbank who
collect donations for needy families in our area.

Last November, as part of their Reverse Advent
Calendar, Kinross Otters donated a huge amount of food to this wonderful
cause.

The donations went on to make up hampers which
brightened up the season for some of the most vulnerable in our community.

Broke not Broken were delighted with our
donation and the club too are very proud of the kindness and compassion shown
by everyone who donated.

Club Champs
& Awards Night

The highlight of the Otters calendar! Club
Champs is great fun and the Awards Night event a month or so later is even
better!

Thanks to everyone who came along and
celebrated the success of our swimmers and for the team who pull together the
night itself.

All of our swimmers collected their awards
with great good grace, but one or two were better dressed than others!

Special thanks to Ann Marie Neave and Stuart
Cornwall for their expert photography!

The Eilidh
Neave Cup

Lots of awards are given out after Club
Champs, but there is one in particular which has a special place in our hearts.

As many of you know, in July of last year we
lost one of Otters, Eilidh Neave, to meningitis. Eilidh’s family wanted to
celebrate her love of swimming by donating an award in her name.

The Eilidh Neave Cup is presented to the new
Otter with the fastest 50m breaststroke. Eilidh herself had only recently
joined Otters before her death, although her sister and Mum have been involved
for several years.

Indeed, Zoë, Eilidh’s sister was on hand on
awards night to present the inaugural cup to Christina Sloan.

We are very proud of both Christina and Zoë.

December Meets

The
season didn’t stop for the festivities with a number of meets throughout
December.

District
Regional Programme

Well
done to Emily, Ben and coach Bob for completing 2019 The District Regional
Programme. Run by the Scottish Swimming Performance Team, it provides an
opportunity for coaches and swimmers alike to develop a greater understanding
of many key areas of competitive swimming.

It
involves classroom and pool work and is a collaborative process where swimmers
and coaches from across Scotland come together to share experience and share
knowledge.

Scottish
Short Course Champs

Emily
Cumming and Struan Bennet were in fine form at the 2019 Scottish National Short
Course Open campaign at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh on 13/14
December.

Both worked exceptionally hard at this very high
level event and ended up with Emily gaining a new Short Course PB in her 100m
fly and Struan romping home with a 1500m free PB of 16:48:03. This time
qualifies him for SNAG’s!

Well
done to both of them, they both gave it everything and we have a very proud
Head Coach.

Warrender

There
was no rest for Otters in the run up to Christmas with the two day Warrender
Graded Meet held at Glenrothes on 21 and 22 December.

A
solid team turned out despite the time of year and were rewarded with a spate
of PB’s as well as a gold and bronze for Ben and Emily.

They
included a few Christmas crackers.
Duncan Crichton saw a 19.89 sec improvement in the 200 freestyle, 14.15
off for Katie Fraser in the 50 butterfly and a fantastic 25.69 off in the 200
breaststroke from Benji Alexander.

Even
our officials got into the Christmas spirit! We very much appreciate everyone
giving up their weekend so close to Christmas and celebrating with some great
swims!

January Meets

We
kicked off 2020 in great style as Otters brought their best to the two day Carnegie meet at
Glenrothes on 11 and 12 January.

Huge improvements made by lots of swimmers
including Harry Leonard down 10 secs in the 100m free, Anna Healy the same in
her 50m breaststroke and Jessica Sloan taking twice that off her 200m
free! On Sunday the PB’s just kept on
coming with a whopping 23.50 seconds off the 200m free for Matthew Kenny and 16
seconds off the 400m free for Zoe Neave. There were many, many more, too many
to mention, but check the boards at the pool for the full details.

Medals too for Tom Pritchard and Ben
with bronzes, Cailean a silver and two gold, Charlotte Chadwick taking a
silver in the 50m backstroke and Innes,
Struan, Ben and Johnny all taking golds too. There were four ‘Too Fast’
Awards as well! A truly fantastic weekend with lots of really hard work from
everyone. Congratulations to you all.

Kit Online Store

We
are thrilled that our online store is now open!

Simply
order whatever you need from the online store using the link below, add your
personalization and it will be delivered direct. No more waiting around for our annual bulk
buy!

We
still sell caps, water bottles and onesies direct so talk to your child’s coach
or any poolside helper or committee member for info on how to order.